Impact of Malaria Control on Late and Early Infant Mortality in Senegal

Abstract

AbstractOne of the greatest achievements of the twenty‐first century has been the dramatic decline in malaria prevalence notably in endemic developing countries. In this study, we estimate the impact of recent scale up in malaria control in Senegal on neonatal, postnatal and infant mortality. We exploit natural preintervention variation in malaria prevalence to estimate the impact of recent malaria control policy in Senegal. In a difference in differences design, we find a negative and significant effect on neonatal and infant mortality in malaria endemic regions while the impact on postnatal mortality is inconclusive. We rule out competing explanations such as contemporaneous health campaigns, general improvement in health care delivery and pre‐existing regional time trends. We identify a 26.9% and 16.3% reduction in neonatal and infant mortality, respectively, in malaria endemic regions during 2005–2014. We argue that increase in donor funding for malaria control as well as greater involvement of local communities and civil society organization has proven to be effective. However, the impact of malaria control on mortality may vary substantially depending on early or late infant mortality.